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REMARKS 


HON. MILTON S. LATHAM 


OF CALIFORNIA, 



SLAVERY IN THE STATES AND 


THE DOCTRINE OF AN “IRREPRESSI 
“LABOR STATES” AND “CAT 


DELIVERED IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, APEIL 16, 1 860. 


Mr. President : It is now nearly eighty-four years since this great 
country, comprising an area larger than that ever swayed by a repub¬ 
lican Government on earth, was introduced into th&family of nations, 
tilled with the consciousness of future power, and encouraged by the 
sympathies and applause of the civilized world. 

Our institutions were admirably adapted to the spirit of the age; 
they were the result of the progress of political ideas, the fruits of an 
advanced civilization, and the experience of past centime^ 

They breathed a higher appreciation of the dignify bf mian than 
that which had been nurtured by the superstition, cruelty, and injus¬ 
tice of the feudal system; and embodied, perhaps for the first time in 
the history of the world, the genius of humanity in legislative forms. 

IVe have, with a few trifling exceptions, enjoyed uninterrupted 
peace, unbounded national prosperity, and a degree of success in our 
agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial pursuits, which have 
made our country an object of emulation and envy to those whom we 
have already distanced in the race for wealth and power. 

Millions of enterprising and energetic men from foreign countries 
have flocked to our shores, to share with us the blessings of our insti¬ 
tutions and laws; and we have become the exemplar of the world's 
progress, to whom the oppressed and dissatisfied of all climes point 
with exultation as the realization of their cherished hopes. Yet what 
have we done, during all that time, in the most advantageous position 
in which a nation has ever been placed since the commencement of 
the historical period? Have we originated any new ideas? lias 
our progress in political ethics and philosophy kept pace with our 
immense material development? I am afraid these questions must 
be answered in the negative. 

For nearly a century has the legislative mind of this country spent 
its energies almost exclusively in the consideration of a United States 
Bank, the Tariff, and last, though not least, on the all-absorbing and 
most mischievous topic of negro slavery. Every other idea seems 
to have been swallowed up and annihilated by these three. Even our 
achievements by land and by sea, the acquisition of vast territories, 


Printed by Lemuel Towers, at $1 per hundred copies. 














Zi 

and the formation of new States, seem to have been little more than 
episodes in our history, when compared to the agitation, strife, and 
threats of dissolution produced by these three unhallowed sisters. 

The bank has fortunately received its quietus, by the healthy and 
beneficent operation of the sub-treasury; but the tariff, and more 
especially the slavery question, continue to keep Congress and the j 
whole country in a state of feverish excitement; not only interfering j 
with and preventing wholesome legislation on other and more conge- j 
nial topics, but embittering the feelings of the people of different 
sections of our common country, and endangering thereby our do- j 
inestic peace. ^ # . 

The tariff and slavery questions have assumed a purely sectional 
aspect, affecting, as it is believed, the two great geographical divi- | 
sions of the country very unequally, and appealing especially to the 
prejudices and superstitions, to the cupidity and love of power of those 
who allow themselves to be swayed by them. 

The northern States, we are told, are manufacturing, and require a 
protective tariff, or, at least, a “revenue tariff, with incidental pro¬ 
tection;” while the South, from the institution of negro slavery, is 
necessarily devoted to agriculture, and, for that reason, interested in 
the principle of free trade. 

On the other hand, negro slavery is, by many northern politicians, 
considered an element of political power; which consideration, it 
may fairly be presumed, has more to do with their conscientious oppo¬ 
sition to it than all the questionable philanthropy of their champions 
and deluded followers. 

Every public measure, whether affecting our foreign or domestic 
policy, has been turned and twisted so as to answer the particular ends 
of partisans for or against protective tariff; and the same holds, in a 
still greater degree, of all things in regard to negro slavery. 

These two questions have been made the lever by which men are 
to be raised to political power and influence. All others have become 
subordinate to them, not even excepting those which involve our na¬ 
tional interests and our national honor. And it is a remarkable fact, 
Mr. President, that, in the consideration of both these subjects, the 
widest scope has been afforded to selfish passions, and the least to his¬ 
torical and philosophic inquiry. 

Upon the 29th of last February, this body listened to a speech from 
the honorable Senator from New York, (Mr. Seward,) in which the 
“irrepressible conflict between free labor and labor performed by negro 
slaves” was reiterated, and if it may not have evolved new ideas, or 
thrown new light upon the subject, it certainly presented the question 
in an attractive form. 

The Senator divided our Confederacy into “labor States” and “capi¬ 
tal States”—a division no doubt very palatable to the Senator’s Repub¬ 
lican followers, but incapable of conveying a distinct idea, either to 
the political economist or to the student of history. 

Sir, I do not know of a single modern State which is not a “capital 
State” and a “ labor State” at the same time; and I am equally igno¬ 
rant of the existence of a State where capital and labor do not hold 
to each other, more or less, anfagonistical positions, except it be the 
slaveholding States of the South, in which labor and capital are asso¬ 
ciated in the same hands. 

If capital, according to Adam Smith’s teaching, consists in the ac¬ 
cumulated wages of labor, it is very clear that the power of capital 



3 


/ 


must increase in proportion as the wages of labor diminish, and that 
the interest of the capitalist, so far from, being parallel with that of 
the laborer, is, in fact, opposed to it; as is abundantly proved by the 
condition of the laboring man in the free States of the North, and by 
the still more lamentable position of the laboring classes of Europe, 
where capital is concentrated in fewer hands, and where it had a 
longer time to operate and oppress the laborer than is the case in this 
country, with our comparatively sparse population and immense fields 
-of enterprise. 

Let population increase, let labor become cheap, dispose of our 
public domain, and diminish thereby the avenues of wealth, and our 
“ labor States” of the North will be far more absolutely under the 
control of the capitalist than any portion of the white population of 
the southern States of our Confederacy, whom the Senator from New 
York would stigmatize as ‘‘capital States.” 

Our democratic institutions may protect the free laborer to a cer¬ 
tain extent, but they cannot guard and secure him against the invisi¬ 
ble encroachments of capital, and that silent working of competition 
which in all countries has reduced the condition of the laboring 
classes to one of almost hopeless dependency on capital, terminating 
too often in sickening hardship, if not in servitude. 

With the organization of labor as it exists in Europe and in our 
northern States, wages must constantly approach a point threatening 
to the physical well being, if not the absolute existence of the laborer; 
for the laborer must work to live, while capital only employs him 
when his labor is remunerative, which is too often, in proportion as 
wages are reduced, to the starvation point. 

When no work is required to be done, the laborer is wholly de¬ 
prived of the means of subsistence, and has no longer any interest in 
the State which has grown rich by his industry. 

Sir, the political institutions of a country have very little to do 
with the relative position of capital and labor; for the laboring classes, 
whether manufacturing or agricultural, are no better off in England, 
for example, than in India or China. 

Where labor and capital are divided there will be competition for 
work, which is death to the laborer, while it adds to the wealth and 
power of the capitalist. 

It is the relation of labor to capital which threatens the political 
status of every country in Europe, which has given rise to the doc¬ 
trine of the Socialists, and which requires the presence of standing 
armies to secure domestic peace. The great problem of European 
government consists in finding employment for the working classes, 
and at the same time to raise their wages to a point sufficient to sus¬ 
tain animal life. 

And in this respect our northeastern States do not materially differ 
from the States of Europe. The difference, at this period , consists 
merely in our greater demand for labor and our less abundant supply. 

In the face of these facts, which are patent and familiar to every 
reflecting mind or impartial observer, what sophistry it is, with all 
deference to the Senator, to divide our States into “ capital States” 
and “ labor States!” 

No one in this Chamber more thoroughly understands than he, with 
his cultivated intellect, the unconquerable antagonism between capital 
and labor; or appreciates more truly the instinctive dread of the la¬ 
boring classes to the influence and grinding power of capital \ and 



4 


hence, it seems to me, he has, for political effect alone, selected these 
terms; applying the one indiscriminately to the majority of his poli- 
cal opponents, and the other to the majority of his political followers. 

One would suppose, from his description of the operation of labor 
in our northern States, that they were either all inhabited by laborers, 
or that, where capital and labor exist at the same time, they shared 
alike the profits of their association. The case, however, is widely 
different. Suppose Mr. Lawrence, or Mr. Abbott, or Mr. anybody else, 
establishes a cotton factory: how does he go to work ? There are 
some three or four hundred men, women, and children, all desirous 
of being employed, entering into co-partnership with him; pledging 
their time, labor, and health, to the promotion of the common object. 

There are, in addition, inspectors and foremen, machinists and 
clerks, doing the same thing on conditions a little more favorable to 
themselves. 

And then comes Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Abbott, or Mr. anybody else, 
who gives a piece of paper, with his name written upon it, represent¬ 
ing a capital of $50,Qp0! For it is the peculiar faculty of capital 
that it can be multiplied by credit , and that a man worth $50,000 in 
cash may have credit, and do business to the amount of millions; 
while the laborer, for whom the Senator from TsTew York has such a 
particular regard, has but two hands which can earn him only so many 
meals and when these hands stop, by reason of remaining unemploy¬ 
ed, the meals stop also, and the functions of the stomach with them. 

When there is a diminished demand for manufactured goods, the 
manufacturer employs but half the number of men, women, and chil¬ 
dren, or employs them only for a less number of hours, while the 
cravings of their systems remain the same, though the means of satis¬ 
fying them are reduced to one-half. 

The three or four hundred men, women, and children, nevertheless, 
remain in the partnership; and if the building in which they per¬ 
form their daily task does not tumble down on their heads, they man¬ 
age to live; and at the end of some years, how do you suppose the 
profits of capital and labor are divided? If they have done a lucra¬ 
tive business, they must, as one would suppose from the Senator’s re¬ 
marks, have made something handsome by the opoation. But the 
fact is, the laborers have spent their wages in procuring food and rai¬ 
ment, while Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Abbott, or Mr. anybody else, has be¬ 
come a millionaire! If the business was less profitable, or connected 
with loss, then the probability is, the men, women, and children, have 
been worked but half the time, and have been but half clothed and 
fed, or they were entirely discharged; while the man who has given 
his paper as his share of the risk, obtains an extension, or settles with 
hi§ creditors for fifty cents on the dollar! After the pressure is thus 
removed, he commences with new hands, or with the same hands, if 
they are still alive, and capable of performing work. lie may suc¬ 
ceed this time, but the workman remains as poor as he was when he 
started in business. 

; In the one case the paper man, the capitalist, becomes rich; in the 
other, his creditors foot up the loss; the laborer, in either case, re¬ 
mains dependent on the capitalist. Such is the nature of the associ¬ 
ation of capital and labor in the northern States, and in all countries 
: where free labor is obliged to compete for wages. 

The wages of labor are constantly tending to the minimum of what 
‘will support life; and if the laborer, harassed and exhausted by the 


5 


scantiness and uncertainty of liis support, dies, he is quickly replaced 
by another, who runs the same career of poverty and want. 

And now, Senators, how are these things in the southern slavehold¬ 
ing States ? There the owner of the slave is undoubtedly the capitalist, 
but his property consists in the labor force of the country, and it is a la¬ 
bor force which must consequently be taken care of, whether employed 
or not j tor if it perishes, the capital employed in it perishes with it. 

Capital there, had no interest in diminishing the wages of labor; 
hence there is no competition among the laborers, and no disposition 
to work them at starvation prices, to the destruction of their health 
and comfort. 

Yet these States the Senator from New York calls, “ par excellence” 
the “ capital States,” to render them as odious as possible in the eyes 
of the laboring and voting classes of the North. 

In a book, no doubt intended to illustrate the views of those who 
agree with the Senator from New York, called the “ Heljper Ijook ” a 
series of statistics is furnished to show how the North has been in¬ 
jured by the South, and how far the value of the products of northern 
industry exceeds that of the industry of the South. 

Now, supposing these statistical tables to be all correct, what do 
they prove, but that the laboring man of the North has been worked 
harder than the laboring man of the South, and that the capitalists of 
the North have derived a larger profit from him. 

The majority of the people of the North are not property-holders 
or capitalists ; the majority are laborers, and the relation of the capi¬ 
talist to the laborer, and of one capitalist to another is such that one 
species of capital is employed in competition with another, tending 
not only to diminish wages, but also the number of capitalists. 

‘And if wages and profits, by this compound competition, have not 
reached the lowest mark of which they are susceptible, it is because 
the South with its slaves has not entered into this competition. It 
confines itself to agriculture ; it abandons manufactures to the North ; 
and by furnishing a market for the products of northern labor, keeps 
up the demand for, and thereby the price of, that labor. Does- the 
Senator from New York, does any other reasonable man, suppose 
that, if the South turned its attention to manufactures and the me¬ 
chanical arts, the products of northern industry would be as valuable 
and remunerative as they are now? Not only would the markets for 
these products diminish in the southern States, but the products them¬ 
selves would be multiplied; thus diminishing prices by the double 
operation of greater supply and a diminished demand. That for 
which the South is reproached in the Helper book, ought really to be 
a source of congratulation to the North, to the laborer as well as to the 
capitalist; to the laborer, because it tends to keep up wages; to the 
capitalist, because it postpones the period at which the conflict be¬ 
tween him and the laborer may threaten his wealth, if not his per¬ 
sonal security. 

It seems to me, sir, that the North, in this crusade against the 
South, is quarreling with its own source of prosperity. If the South 
holds the relation to the North attributed to it by the Senator from 
New York, as illustrated by the Helper book, the North possesses, in 
the southern States of this Confederacy, the most magnificent colo¬ 
nies of the world ; and it is its interest to preserve them as it was the 
interest of Great Britain to do so, and to secure thereby the best 
market for its industrial products. 




6 

Graham, in his History of the United States, alludes to .the plea of 
the American agent for the colonies, with the British minister, in be¬ 
half of a grant of some twenty thousand pounds, made by Parlia¬ 
ment to William and Mary College, in Virginia, and which the agent 
claimed for the benefit of the souls of the poor colonists; to which 
the British minister is said to have replied : “Never mind (or some¬ 
thing worse) their souls; let them plant tobacco /” 

Now, why should not the Senator from New York be equally gen¬ 
erous to Virginia and her sister States ? Why should he insist on their 
becoming competitors with northern labor ? Why seek to diminish 
the price of northern labor? It was not the interest of Great Britain 
to let a single clothes-pin or shoe nail be made in America, or any other 
article from the manufacture, sale, and transportation of which she 
might derive a profit; and the same may now be said of the northern 
States of this Union with reference to the South. The northern States, 
in their trade with the South since the Declaration of our Indepen¬ 
dence, have taken the place of Great Britain ; and it seems to me that 
northern politicians are sadly betraying the best interests of their con¬ 
stituents when they interfere with southern institutions and set the 
different States of our common country by the ears for the sordid pur¬ 
pose of obtaining power. They quarrel with their best customers, 
the natural ally of northern industrial labor, and the best protector 
of the northern capitalist whom they enable to live in peace with the 
men in his employ and to accumulate colossal fortunes. 

There must be a conservative power somewhere in this Union, and 
it is in vain to look for it among the constant mutations and changes 
in the northern States. The South, from the nature of its institutions, 
is slow in its movements ; but for that very reason eminently conser¬ 
vative. The South is indispensable to the prosperity of the North. 
The North is beneficial to the South only as long as it fulfills the con¬ 
ditions of the constitutional compact, entered into to secure to all par¬ 
ties the peaceful enjoyment of their institutions and laws. I have 
deemed these remarks not inappropriate, and as due to the argument 
of the Senator from New York, regarding him as a great leader and 
as a distinguished political economist. Let me now beg your indul¬ 
gence while I examine the sentimental part of the slavery question. 
It is my humble opinion, Mr. President, that the slavery question, 
with which professional politicians are endeavoring to agitate and 
disturb the country, would long since have ceased to be an element 
of mischief, if it were not constantly kept alive and pressed on the 
consideration of the public as a question involving the highest princi¬ 
ples of morals and religion. Teachers and schoolmasters have acted 
as auxiliaries to political partisans, until at last they inflame the fana¬ 
ticism of their deluded victims to deeds of treason, bloodshed, and 
murder. 

The evil lies in the misconception, on the part of the people of the 
North, of the institution of negro slavery as it exists in the southern 
States, and in the wrong estimate formed by them of the character 
and faculties of the negro. I may be permitted to speak freely upon 
this question, for I do it dispassionately. I represent a free northern 
State; I am a native of a northern State, as were my ancestors before 
me; but I have had sufficient experience, by a residence of a few 
years in a southern State, to thoroughly appreciate and understand 
the relation that the negro slave bears to his master, and I also believe 

+]->af nninlnn in timn ttmII nr\ov» ill'll on h ' 


7 

it is the nature of error to travel fast, and of truth to make progress 
slowly. The one has wings, the other, the slow march of the pil¬ 
grim. In this consists the danger. The slavery question, it is my 
humble opinion, would be set at rest in a very few years if we would 
only apply ourselves earnestly to the study of the nature and history 
ot the negro, instead of endowing him with qualities furnished from 
the rich stores of our own imagination. 

The negro is, undoubtedly, a worthy man in his place ; but he never 
will be a participant in civilization in an equal degree with the Cau¬ 
casian. It is sheer nonsense to treat this matter in the abstract; to 
speak of what the negro would be if he were educated, and of what 
achievements he would be capable in the various departments of hu¬ 
man industry and knowledge, if he enjoyed the same advantages as 
the white man. All such arguments and suppositions are nothing but 
moonshine—a mere begging of the question. They amount to no¬ 
thing more than the various theories of government established by 
philosophic dreamers without a knowledge of men’s passions and vices, 
and the means which are necessary to restrain them. History is the 
only safe-guide to the lawmaker, as it is the last judgment pronounced 
on nations and races. 

Instead of inquiring what the negro might be under different cir¬ 
cumstances from those in which he is now placed, let us consult the 
past to see what he has been from the earliest period to the present 
day. The earliest civilization which we can trace by historical re¬ 
cords occurred in Egypt, and we find that the negro was already as¬ 
sociated with it as a slave. His native country may be said to have 
bordered on Egypt; yet no Egyptian civilization penetrated thither, 
and no traces of it are now to be found among the negro races in Af¬ 
rica. Greeks, Phoenicians, Carthagenians, and Romans followed. The 
negro was again brought in close contact with them, but without prof¬ 
iting by their advanced civilization. Then came the Portuguese, Span¬ 
iards, French, Dutch, English, and the Americans, with nearly the 
same result. 

The negroes who became subject to those nations or their colonies 
were slaves. Some were emancipated ; none carried civilization into 
Africa ; and that continent, though the cradle of genius, is at this mo¬ 
ment the most barbarous of all and the least known to the geographer 
and historian. The history of the world is the history of the Caucasian 
race; making a distinct and an uninterrupted 'progress even amid 
crumbling empires and the ruins of burning cities. 

Sir, if every trace and record of all other races were destroyed, the 
world would not be deprived of a single noble thought or artistical 
conception, nor of a single invention or contrivance in mechanical arts 
capable of exercising an important influence upon civilization. Pro* 
gj'esSi Mr. President, is a Caucasian term, existing in all Caucasian 
languages, and expressing the characteristic faculty of the race. Let 
the Caucasian race disappear from the earth, and you will have no¬ 
thing left but the stereotyped civilization of the Chinese and Japa¬ 
nese, and the barbarism of the Ethiopians. And from these histori¬ 
cal premises would our northern Republican philosophers argue that 
the negro only requires the same advantages of education as the white 
man to be equal to him in every respect, and to maintain all the rela¬ 
tions of a civilized state? Sir, the negro did enjoy the same advan¬ 
tages as the Europeans enjoyed them centuries in advance of Euro- 
vion.n oi vil i 7. a,t,i on. 


8 

Negro tribes were subdued by their white neighbors, and forced, as 
they are with us, to adopt certain principles of humanity and law for 
the regulation of their conduct; but these principles did not cling to 
them, for they were not voluntarily adopted, and were repugnant to; 
their tastes. When the condition of the negro w r as changed, when the 
pressure which forced him to move in a particular direction was re¬ 
moved, he gradually relapsed into his native barbarism. Nor doe* 
the fact that civilization was forced upon the negro furnish an apology 
for the little progress he has made in it. The different European na¬ 
tions conquered by the Romans exhibited very different capacities. 
Ancient Gaul was completely civilized within a century after the Ro¬ 
man conquest, while the Teutonic races, who were never entirely 
subdued, never adopted Roman civilization until centuries after the 
fall of Rome; but they all adopted it voluntarily , and improved upon 
it, whether as conquered races or conquerors. They bowed to the su¬ 
perior genius of those who were further advanced in the arts, and 
retained and cherished the models of taste and thought as the most 
invaluable treasures of the whole human race. The Romans pursued 
this line of policy in regard to the Greeks, and all European races 
have done so in regard to the Romans. 

The negro has done nothing like it, and is doing no such thing now. 
He merely adheres to civilization when he is obliged to move in a 
civilized medium. Under the most favorable circumstances he has 
been but an humble imitator; in no instance has he exhibited a civili¬ 
zation of a distinct character, amounting to a national development. 
The history of human progress can be written without devoting a 
separate chapter to the negro. He has taken no part in the develop¬ 
ment of the human mind ; he has furnished no contributions to arts, 
and he has never exhibited any capacity for that superior political 
organization called a Government. Sir, we have no other means of 
judging individuals, nations, or races, except by their works; and ap¬ 
plying this principle to the negro, we see that he has done nothing. 
Under the direction and guidance of a superior race, he may at times 
have rendered himself quite useful, but we have no proof that he has 
ever voluntarily played such a part; and until history furnishes us 
with an example of that sort, I shall be the last man to call upon my 
white brethren of the southern States to inconsiderately remodel or 
change their domestic institutions. 

We have nothing to do with speculations in regard to the physical 
and moral capacities of the negro. We have, as legislators, to deal 
with facts, not with theories; with things as they are, not with myths 
and abstractions. Whether the negro was the equal of the white 
man before the flood ; whether he is a lineal descendant of Adam 
and Eve, or the result of a previous or subsequent creation, is no 
question for a law-maker, and intrinsically of little or no value. We 
have to deal with the negro as he is, as he has showii himself from 
the earliest periods of human history, and as, from our knowledge of 
him, he is likely to be centuries hence. 

Kept in proper subjection, and guided by a superior intelligence, 
he may be both happy and useful on this continent. Left to himself, 
and but imperfectly restrained by the operation of law, his presence 
among us may give rise to great national calamities, and seriously 
interfere with our domestic peace. 

I do not think the agitation of the slavery question will benefit the 
negro or improve his condition among ns, while it undoubtedly weak- 


9 

ens tlie ties by which ourselves are bound together as a nation, and 
exposes us to all the evils of a people divided by sectional passions 
and prejudices. If you, gentlemen of the Republican party, are sin¬ 
cere in your profession of philanthropy, if you really want to improve 
the condition of the negro, and not merely to use him as a stalking 
horse to ride into power, let him alone, and cease agitating the coun¬ 
try unth your seditious eloquence and your arguments addressed to 
spinsters. The people of the southern States will not be instructed by 
your teachings; your counsel will be spurned with indignation, and 
your professions of fraternal feelings will be received with very little 
faith in your sincerity. 

As long as you make the slavery question the battle-cry for your 
sectional adherents, it is impossible for the South to trust you or to 
look upon your proceedings with indifference. Abandon it, and the 
South will again unite with us upon all questions concerning our 
common welfare. The South claims nothing but her constitutional 
rights. The North is already in possession of all the real practical 
advantages of position and power. The South is willing, and must 
submit to an accomplished fact. Why should the North insist on up¬ 
setting the constitutional theory or heaping opprobrium upon an insti¬ 
tution for which the South is not responsible, and with which the 
North has no right to interfere? There is a universal law of nature 
that life of any kind, whether vegetable or animal, will go wherever 
there exists the conditions of its existence, and the same holds of men 
and races. 

The negro will go on this continent, wherever may be found the 
conditions of his existence, wherever his labor is profitable, and 
wherever, under the protection of his master, he is safe from that 
competition with his labor, which is sure to be his destruction and 
death ; and he will go nowhere else! Now, why should you insist on 
making by-laws to the laws of God, useless and puerile in themselves, 
and offensive to a large portion of the people of this Union? The 
Kansas question has long since been practically settled. It was set¬ 
tled only by the universal law of nature just quoted. By letting 
slavery alone, it will always quietly work out its own destiny. If in¬ 
terfered with by us of the North—if artificial checks or artificial stim¬ 
ulants be applied — the consequences may be disastrous to both the 
black and the white races, and equally so to our laws and institutions. 
The “irrepressible conflict” with which we are threatened, is the cre¬ 
ation of politicians for their own ends. It does not exist in reality, 
and cannot take place until the Constitution is torn into fragments, 
and the bonds of our Union are destroyed forever. 

Slavery has existed in the United States from the time of the adop¬ 
tion of the Federal constitution, and w r e have prospered with it as a 
nation. 

The northern States have abandoned it, because they found it no 
longer profitable to them - ; but they have done but little, if anything, 
towards educating the negro, and liberty has not materially improved 
either his conditions or his morals. That which the North has done 
for the negro is very far from inviting the South to follow its exam¬ 
ple. The South cannot afford to have so large a portion of its popu¬ 
lation abandoned to idleness and vice. It cannot, with the same facil¬ 
ity as the North, replace black labor with white labor; and the cotton, 
rice, and sugar States cannot do so at all. What control of the negro 
could be substituted in these States mr that of their present condition? 


10 

I know of none, and the Senator from New 1 ork knows of none.. lie 
would be sadly puzzled if the South, instead of repelling his views, 
v/ere to accede atonce to them, and to ask him to furnish the .means 
to carry them into practice without ruining the South, and injuring, 
in the same ratio, the North, and without reducing the negro himself 
to a worse condition than that in which he is now content, happy and 
useful. Yet that which the Senator from New York cannot do him¬ 
self, which his whole party is incapable of accomplishing, he is deter¬ 
mined to force on the South, by representing it to the whole country 
as an unavoidable issue, as an “irrepressible conflict.” He asks the 
people to choose between African slaves and white freemen; as if 
such a question could really be put; as if such a practical issue could 
ever be presented to the country. The conflict between African slaves 
and white freemen exists nowhere, and least of all in the southern 
States. 

The white freeman and the African slave will never, never come in 
conflict with one another, so long as each shall preserve his proper 
place, so long as aspiring politicians and political demagogues shall 
be prevented from conjuring up delusive phantoms, with which to dis¬ 
turb the imagination and trouble the good sense of the people. Slave 
labor and free labor, so far from being opposed to one another, assist 
each other mutually by varying and multiplying production. As long 
as the southern States shall employ slave labor, they will be the best 
customers of the North, and the negro, instead of conflicting or com¬ 
peting with free white labor, will serve to keep up the price of it. 
As long as the negro is usefully employed in the southern States, he 
will stay there, and not go to the North to compete with the wages, 
either of the white native freeman, or of the immigrant from Europe. 
The conflict between the African and the white man can only begin 
with the emancipation of the negro , not before ! There is no disposi¬ 
tion on the part of the South to force slavery upon the North, no more 
than there is a disposition on the part of northern manufacturers to 
force their fabrics on a bad market. 

The South is merely contending for her constitutional rights, no 
more; and to refuse to acknowledge these is an infringement of the 
constitutional compact which binds us together as a nation, for no pos¬ 
sible advantage to either section. The “irrepressible conflict” is a 
northern abstraction, alike opposed to the Constitution, the Union, 
and the best material interests of the whole country. It is nothing 
but a political formula, spreading dread and alarm throughout the 
land, inviting to sectional passions and prejudices, and inflaming the 
fanaticism of men who would otherwise be useful members of society, 
and in pursuit of some profitable business. The “irrepressible con¬ 
flict” is a political lever in the hands of sectional politicians, not an 
unavoidable issue between the different sections of the Union. As to 
the query of the distinguished Senator from New York, “whether 
civilization can improve, whether Christianity can save?” I do not 
see what application it has to the slavery question. Civilization ne¬ 
cessarily takes different forms, and there are some forms of civilization 
which are no improvement at all, either to the physical or moral man. 

Few of us would wish to revive Greek or Homan civilization, 
though both were, in some respects, superior to our own. The 
French are the most eminently civilized people of Europe; yet none 
of us would willingly transfer French civilization, with all its concom¬ 
itants, to our shores. The proposition that civilization improves, must 


11 

therefore be taken cum grano salts / and I would especially except 
from it the civilization which seems to be the beau ideal of the Sena¬ 
tor from New York. As to the other proposition, that “Christianity 
can save,” no one can deny it. But the Senator from New York is so 
renowned an expounder of the “higher law,” that a doubt may rea¬ 
sonably arise whether Christianity, as he understands it , is the same 
as that which our simple forefathers practiced when they framed the 
Constitution of this country ; and whether the saving qualities of that 
species of Christianity actually extend to the toleration of such errors 
as the Senator from New York wishes to propagate throughout the 
length and breadth of our land. 

Sir, religion has gained nothing from being mixed up with politics, 
but may lose much of its sanctity in the estimation of men by being 
made subservient to partisan ends. I will not follow the honorable 
Senator from New York, into what I conceive is a labyrinth of error 
and confusion, much less will I imitate his example. The Christian 
religion is one of peace, not of strife and contention. It does not, like 
that of Mohammed, present an “irrepressible conflict” between the 
faithful and the infidel, to be terminated in the last instance by the 
sword. Hence the great distinction between the Christians and Turks, 
and hence the adaptation of Christianity to modern civilization, and 
the incompatibility of Mohammedanism with all rational progress in 
politics and morals. 

Jesus Christ, the Divine founder of our holy religion, lived and 
talked surrounded by slaves, subject to a Homan master, and yet no¬ 
where did lie preach the doctrine of the “irrepressible conflict,” or 
stimulate the Jews to rebellion and bloodshed. It was those who be¬ 
lieved in the “irrepressible conflict” that called for His crucifixion. 

I have said that it is the duty of the North to let slavery alone. If 
all parties were agreed on emancipation, they would be at a loss for 
the means to accomplish it without ruining the prosperity and indus¬ 
try of the whole country and destroying tire negro. Experience, the 
only safe guide of the statesman, has shown the danger with which 
such a subject is surrounded and the destructive consequences to 
which it may lead. In the face of historical results, produced else¬ 
where, under circumstances far more favorable than those in which 
our southern States are placed, and under a Government possessing 
far greater coercive powers than our own, we are bound, looking to 
their example, to exercise caution. The West India experiment is 
not inviting us to hazard our peace, our security, and the great com¬ 
mercial and industrial interests of this country, by yielding to the de¬ 
mands of political fanatics, who would substitute sentiment for duty, 
and their own views of right and wrong for the Constitution and laws 
of the land. Government, as has often been remarked, is a business, 
not a sentiment; and he is but a poor statesman, though he may be 
a successful politician, who views it in a different light and acts upon 
a different principle. 

We are continually told in this body that the Kepublicans, as a 
party, do not intend to attack slavery in the slave States, but merely 
mean to confine it to its present limits. I cannot believe such decla¬ 
rations are founded in truth or are sincere on the part of those who 
make them, and are to my mind utterly incompatible with the organi¬ 
zation of sectional parties. As long as there is a party in the United 
States which does not recognize the Constitution and the decisions of 
Svmrprne Court as the sut me law of the land, as long as a party 



12 

is permitted, as a sectional party, to revile the institutions of the South 
and to excite hatred and contempt for them among its adherents, there 
can be no peace, no safety for the South, and consequently no frater¬ 
nal feeling between the people of the different sections of the country, 
and no national sentiment in the loftier sense of the word. 

The whole slavery agitation must cease, the “ irrepressible conflict” 
must be abandoned, if our Federal Union is to be preserved; if we 
are again to act in concert with one another and weigh in the scale 
of power as a united and kindred people. 

I, for one, am willing to recognize the supremacy of the Constitu¬ 
tion. I am willing to submit to the decisions of the Supreme Court, j 
and to adhere, to the fullest extent, to the compromises which our ! 
fathers entered into for the sake of peace and union, and which it is | 
our duty to uphold and defend for our common safety. There is no I 
security, no peace, no hope for our institutions and laws, or for the 
continued prosperity of our country, in any other course; and the 
time is close at hand when the immense majority of the people of all 
the States, North, South, East, and West, will come to the same con¬ 
clusion. 

Fanaticism may prevail for a while, but our people are too emi¬ 
nently practical to be for any length of time led into error, or made 
to war on their best interests. Even now, while professional politi¬ 
cians are hard at work to keep the excitement alive, they are rebuked 
by the sound, sensible, business men of the country, who repudiate 
them and their pernicious doctrines in the most effective manner, by 
the total indifference with which they behold their proceedings, and 
the renewed energy with which they devote themselves to their ac¬ 
customed pursuits. The people of this Union, Mr. President, are not 
alarmed. They neither covet nor desire an “ irrepressible conflict.” 
They pursue “ the even tenor of their way.” They toil to become 
rich; and the business of the country is going on as usual. Why is 
this? The reason is, the people know they have the power to control 
the politicians, and if necessary, can put them down. The people 
know of no conflict. They are willing to go on as they have done, 
content, prosperous, and happy. They w^ant no other constitution 
than the one inherited from our ancestors; no other sovereignty than 
the one they have always enjoyed from the Declaration of our Inde¬ 
pendence. We have as yet no class among us hopelessly doomed to 
poverty and want. Our institutions give all men an equal chance; 
and if all do not succeed, if all do not become opulent or rich, every 
one, nevertheless, has a prospect of success, whfch animates him and 
stimulates him to individual exertions. 

Sir, the slavery question has lasted too long. It has been produc¬ 
tive of no good, but it is fraught with great mischief. It has disturb¬ 
ed our amicable relations; it has sown the seeds of distrust, discord, 
and hatred between different sections of the same people, and it is 
threatening our existence as a nation. It is surrounded with dangers 
in every direction, and saps the very foundation of our Government. 
The people of the State which I have in part the honor to represent 
yield to none other in attachment and devotion to the Union. They 
view with deep regret the efforts of those who seek to obtain power 
by weakening this attachment, and are resolved to throw their weight 
and influence in favor of the laws and institutions as they stand. Cal¬ 
ifornia wants, no new code—neither a “slave code” nor a “free-soil 
code,” nor any new theory of “ popular sovereignty.” She respects 



13 

and will ever clierisli a proper regard for established laws and vested 
rights. 

The Constitution, as handed down to us by Washington and Jeffer¬ 
son, answers all our purpose. We ask nothing more, nor are we will¬ 
ing to content ourselves with less. We will not allow that sacred in¬ 
strument to be mutilated, nor shall—as long as we have a controlling 
voice in the national affairs—any new interpretation be put on its 
provisions. The Constitution is good enough as it is; the laws are 
satisfactory to us, and shall be faithfully executed as far as we are 
concerned. But I fully agree with the majority of my colleagues on 
this floor in the opinion, that if the Judiciary and Executive authority 
of the country do not possess the means to insure adequate protection 
to constitutional rights in the Territories of the United States, or if 
any territorial government should fail or refuse to provide the neces¬ 
sary remedies for that purpose, it will be the duty of Congress to sup¬ 
ply that deficiency. I am willing to aid in the performance of that 
duty whenever a proper exigency arrives; but 1 am utterly opposed 
to anticipating it, because I have an abiding confidence in the loyalty 
and patriotism of the people, and in the ultimate good sense of those 
wdio, however misled they may be by professional agitators or by their 
own passions, need only be made to perceive whither their doctrines 
will carry them, to return at once to their allegiance, and to a proper 
appreciation of their obligations as citizens of the United States. 

I am opposed to all anticipations of evil, because I feel assured 
that the country is not yet in that lamentable situation in which legis¬ 
lators must take counsel of their fears. I have too much faith in the 
conservative sentiment of all the people to suppose that they will 
ever patiently submit to a deliberate infringement of the Constitution 
and the rights of the States, if they can be made to understand the 
purport and consequences of such an act. I think our institutions 
are strong enough and sufficiently endeared to the people of every 
section of the country to be maintained without additional legislation, 
and I still hope that any section -which may feel aggrieved by the 
course to which the excess of party feeling is now tending, will find 
ample relief, inside of the Union, and under the protection of the co¬ 
ordinate branches of our Government. 

The remedy for any wrong that may be inflicted on any portion of 
our beloved country is still in Congress, in the President, and in the 
Judiciary. As long as any one of these coordinate branches performs 
its duty to the whole country, we are safe; and until they all prove 
derelict to their solemn engagements, no fear need be entertained in 
regard to the Union. 

Admitting that the South has strong reasons to be offended and to 
feel aggrieved by the proceedings of one of the political parties in 
the northern States, I still hope to defeat that party by the patriotism 
of that portion of the people of the Uorth who have remained true 
to the Constitution and the Union, and by the united action of the 
South itself. If, however, I am mistaken in my hopes; if a sectional 
President is to be elected by the preponderance of a sectional party, 
then I would still pause to see whether none of the coordinate branches 
of our Government was faithful to its trust; and if I found the Sen¬ 
ate and the Supreme Court of the United States so constituted as to 
afford sufficient protection to southern rights, I would abide their ac¬ 
tion, and trust to their power to uphold the law and Constitution until 
“ the sober second thought” of the people came to the general rescue. 








14 




Sir, I have an abiding faith in the people ; in their common sense, 
their love of justice, and their patriotism. Unless we confide in their 
virtue and good sense, we deny the possibility of republican govern¬ 
ment. Without such confidence in the people, our Government is, 
in its very inception, a miserable failure. I hope we are not yet re¬ 
duced to make such a beggarly confession of our incapacity for self- 
government, as to declare, in the face of the civilized world, that we 
are morally and politically bankrupt, while all Europe points to our 
institutions and laws as models for imitation, and to our success as 
demonstration of their soundness. We have incurred a heavy res¬ 
ponsibility to our cotemporaries and to posterity by the example we 
have set, by the expectations we have raised, and the desires we have 
kindled in the hearts of millions; and, as an humble Senator of the 
United States, I am willing to acknowledge that responsibility, and 
to devote whatever share of talent and energy, God may have granted 
me to the preservation of our institutions and laws, with and through 
the assistance of the people. 

In regard to the Territories, I hold, that they are the joint property 
of all the States; that they were acquired by the common blood and 
by the common funds of all the people of this Union; that all the 
people have a right to go there with such property as they may see 
fit to take, and are entitled to the protection and enjoyment of it so 
long as they remain in a territorial form of government. I agree 
with the sentiments of the honorable Senator from Illinois, (Mr. Doug¬ 
las,) as expressed so far back as 13th of February, 1845, in his speech 
on the admission of Iowa and Florida into the Union, reported in the 
fourteenth volume of the Congressional Globe, wherein he says: 

“That the father may bind the son during his minority, but the moment that be (the 
eon) attains his majority, his fetters are severed and he is free to regulate his own conduct. 
So, sir, with the Territories; they are subject to the jurisdiction and control of Congress 
during infancy , their minority, but when they attain their majority, and obtain admission 
into the Union, they are free from all restraints and restrictions, except such a3 the Con¬ 
stitution of the United States has imposed upon each and all of the States.” 

This was the old-fashioned doctrine in regard to the Territories, and 
it suits me on that account. I want no new interpretation, no inter¬ 
polation, no new hair-splitting distinctions on this subject. I am 
against all innovations, except they are recommended by some prac¬ 
tical utility, and especially against all new theories which appeal to 
the feelings and prejudices of men without adding to their stock of 
information. 

This Union, Mr. President, is much stronger than many of us be¬ 
lieve, and will prove inseparable whenever the parricidal hand of fac¬ 
tion may be raised to destroy it. Every government is growing 
stronger by the exercise of its legitimate powers, and so will our own. 
It is only when a government endeavors to exercise powers, which 
do not belong to it that it becomes weak and tottering, uatil at last 
it crumbles under its own weight. 

If the executive and bothdegislative branches of the Government— 
the Senate and the House of Representatives—were to fall into the 
hands of reckless partisans, and these should try to overthrow the 
Constitution, 1 would still appeal to the Supreme Court , and if that 
appeal were equally ineffectual, this Union would indeed be dissolved 
by the act of the Government itself; but we, who had remained faith¬ 
ful to it to the last, would not be answerable for the consequences. 

Each State would then be reduced to the situation which it occxu 





15 


pied before . of our Federal Union, and obliged to work 

out its own sai, ^ i the means it may possess for that purpose. 

"We in California wouid have reasons to induce us to become mem¬ 
bers neither of the southern confederacy nor of the northern confed¬ 
eracy, and would be able to sustain for ourselves the relations of a 
free and independent State. 

When my colleague, as it is said, stated upon this floor “ that, in 
case of a dissolution of the Union, California would unite herself to 
the South,” he committed a great error. 

Mr. Gwin. If my colleague will give me an opportunity, I will 
state that I never said so here or elsewhere. I have never made that 
statement on any occasion. It was so utterly destitute of truth that 
I did not think it of sufficient importance to contradict it, unless some 
allusion was made to the subject in the Senate ; and I am obliged to 
my colleague for referring to it, and giving me the opportunity of 
contradicting it. I hope, Mr. President, that this Union will be im¬ 
perishable; but if it is ever broken up, the eastern boundary of the 
Pacific Republic will be, in my opinion, the Sierra Madra and the 
Rocky Mountains. 

Mr. La.tham. Mr. President, I am glad that I have given my col¬ 
league an opportunity of correcting this erroneous impression ; for 
lie knows as well as I do that we have resources not possessed by any 
other State of the Union, while our population comprises the most 
enterprising and energetic men of the country. Why should we trust 
to the management of others what we are abundantly able to do our¬ 
selves? Why depend on the South or the North to regulate our af¬ 
fairs? And this, too, after the North and the South had proved 
themselves incapable of living in harmony with one another? 

The Pacific States are separated from the northern and southern 
States by a long chain of sterile mountains, by vast deserts, and can 
be reached easily only by crossing tempestuous seas. The northern 
Atlantic States are not separated from the southern Atlantic Slates by 
any natural barrier. There is no intervening chain of mountains run¬ 
ning from east to west; and river courses, as a means of communica¬ 
tion, unite people instead of dividing them. If this Union, of which 
California is now proud to form a part, were to be dissolved, we on 
the Pacific coast would possess eminent advantages over the Atlantic 
f States. You of the southern, northern, and western States would 
have to fortify your towns, maintain standing armies, and incur vast 
expenditures to preserve that independence which we would possess 
as a gift; and you would fight with one another, as the States of Eu¬ 
rope have fought for two or three centuries, to establish a balance of 
power. We should be subject to no such vicissitudes and should in¬ 
cur no such dangers. 

In the long wars which would necessarily follow dissolution, some 
of your States would entirely disappear, while others would retain but 
a precarious existence by alternately allying their destinies to one sec¬ 
tion of the country or the other, as the arms of this or that party might 
have conquered a momentary ascendency. To all these mutations and 
changes—which would involve your rights, your fortunes, and alas! 
your honor—we should be exposed in a far inferior degree in propor¬ 
tion as we observed a strict neutrality in regard to all of you. 

We would regret your feuds, we would deplore the fraternal blood 
shed on your battle-grounds, we should weep over your declining 





16 


prosperity, your trodden-down fields, yopr ( ->rs; but we 

could not, with our eyes open to tlie fatal con^ ,es of such an act, 
involve ourselves in your fratricidal strife and mutual ruin. Califor¬ 
nia, as I have already observed, yields to no State in loyalty and de¬ 
votion to the Union. She will, with all her youthful energies, and 
with whatever means Providence has placed at her disposal, struggle 
to maintain the Constitution and the laws under which we have pros¬ 
pered as a nation. She will afford no aid and comfort to fanaticism; 
but combat it manfully and hopefully, in accordance with the prompt¬ 
ings of her own generous heart—her gratitude to the Union, to which 
she is indebted for so many benefits already bestowed, and in accord¬ 
ance with her most sacred duty as a member of this noble Confeder¬ 
acy. She will continue to do so with a full and firm reliance on the 
assistance of other States equally loyal and attached to the Union, 
equally disposed to come to the rescue, and with undiminislied faith 
in the national sentiment of the whole people. 

But, if all the efforts to preserve the Union should prove unavail¬ 
ing ; if the fury of party should triumph over the devotion of the 
patriot; if mutual hatred and contempt among the States should take 
the place of love and mutual forbearance; if this glorious Union, 
strained and torn in different directions, should at last be rent asunder 
and destroyed forever, then, like the wrecked mariner, who, amidst 
his sense of woe at the loss of his noble ship, follows the instinct of 
self-preservation, California would try to save herself, though her ex¬ 
istence afterwards would be one of mournful solitude. I cannot, Mr. 
President, think that the Union will be—on the contrary, I believe 
that it cannot be—dissolved, except by the complete and hopeless in¬ 
auguration of Republican principles in every department of the Fed¬ 
eral Government. And for this reason, I do not believe that this 
magnificent country of ours is destined, as is too often prophesied in this 
Chamber, to be torn asunder by internecine strife; that her virgin 
soil will drink fraternal blood, and her pristine forests will re-echo the 
battle-cry of hostile factions. 

But if I am wrong, and we must do battle upon the slavery issue, 
Mr. President, as your illustrious kin (Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge, 
of Kentucky) advised, let us do battle within, within the Union, 
under the Constitution and laws of our common country. In such an 
issue, animated by loyal sentiments to- our country, the intelligence 
and virtue of a free people aiding in the hour of trial, the right, what¬ 
ever it may be, cannot fail, all the threats and prophesies of faint¬ 
hearted men to the contrary notwithstanding. For, sir, this Union is 
too firmly established in the hearts of the American people to be 
severed by fanaticism; our national prosperity is too great and too 
generally diffused to be abandoned for the dark and gloomy future of 
an isolated and divided existence. 

The God of nations has showered too many blessings upon us, to 
withhold from us, in such a crisis, involving our country’s fate, his 
saving grace. This Union, sir, will prove as invulnerable as steel 
and adamant, and it will stand like a rock amid the raging storms, 
unshaken, unchanged, unpolluted by the war of contending elements: 
and so will the Constitution , the embodied wisdom of our forefathers, 
the cherished legacy of high-minded men, who have not intrusted the 
palladium of their freedom and the talisman of their success to an un¬ 
worthy, degenerate posterity 








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